When the Palace Flowers Fade

[Old-school melodrama. Don't read if you dislike it.]

When Xie Fu was seven, she saved a young boy.

The boy was filthy from head to toe, his clothes barely covering him. He was a few years older than her and painfully thin.

Faced with an evil eunuch, the boy's delicate, young face concealed his revulsion. His pale lips were bitten until they bled, yet he didn't utter a sound.

Xie Fu hid among the trees, then stepped out at the last moment.

Eight years later, the state of Qi Ning fell. Millions of troops trampled the capital, and Xie Fu went from a princess high above everyone else to the lowliest captive.

The man who ascended the throne was devilishly handsome, ruthless, and darkly unpredictable.

Among all the captives, he chose her in particular.

And so Xie Fu became the new emperor's consort, favored day after day without pause.

Everyone in the harem envied and resented her, but only Xie Fu knew how obsessive and terrifying the new emperor could be.

When he coldly clamped a hand around her chin, all she could do was suppress her feelings and endure in near silence.

Because in this world, only she knew the past buried deep in his heart: the most humiliating, most degrading history, one that could never be brought into the light.

Everyone called her a femme fatale, denounced her, and declared that the emperor's favor was only temporary, and that in the end he would cast her aside like trash.

Xie Fu never cared.

She swallowed every humiliation, plotted step by step, and watched with clear eyes as he fell deeper and deeper.

Then, on that day, before the armies faced off, everyone finally saw the young emperor fall into despair and beg her to return, word by word.

Reader's guide:

1. Old-school melodramatic pursuit-and-regret romance, 1v1, both pure

2. The characters' values do not necessarily reflect the author's

Theme: Stay true to your heart, and you will see things through to the end